Venice Island is Opening!

After years of hard work and collaboration between the Philadelphia Water Department, Philadelphia Parks and Recreations, and the Manayunk community, Venice Island will open to the public! Join us next week on October 7, 2014 at 11:00 AM for the official opening and ribbon cutting
event to celebrate the completion of the Venice Island Performing Arts & Recreation Center, the Philadelphia Water Department storage basin unit, and green storm water infrastructure projects at the site. Guests will include Mayor Michael Nutter, Councilman Curtis Jones, Jr. Deputy Mayor for Community and Environmental Resources Michael DiBerardinis, Water Commissioner Howard Neukrug, and Chief Cultural Officer Helen Haynes. There will be musical entertainment, tours of the green infrastructure projects, performances at the Venice Island Performing Arts & Recreation Center, and outdoor, site-specific art installations on display.

The Venice Island project is located between the Manayunk Canal and the Schuylkill River, between the Lock and Cotton Street bridges in Manayunk. The Philadelphia Water Department designed the project to include tree trenches, a pump house with a green roof, and a subsurface basin that will temporarily store diverted flow from the sanitary interceptor sewer during intense rain storms. The basin capable of storing nearly four million gallons of water–roughly 180 SEPTA buses–that are later pumped out and directed to a treatment plant. The project not only protects and improves the health of the Schuylkill River, but also includes a full-scale reconstruction of the recreational facilities and community amenities, including a new state-of-the-art recreation and performing arts facility, new athletic fields, a children’s play area and spray park, and a new parking lot. Read more about this exciting project.

We hope to see you at the opening day!